Lost in the Darnold-a-palooza sweeping across the Jets universe these days is another young first-round quarterback who used to be pretty damn good himself once upon a time.

Teddy Bridgewater gave us all a subtle reminder Tuesday that he isn't some clipboard-carrying scrub content with charting Sam Darnold's passes this season. He actually wants to win a starting job that is there for the taking.

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Bridgewater's two-year road back from a grievous knee injury (torn ACL and dislocation) isn't complete, but the former Vikings first-rounder sure looks much further along in his rehab than most people believed a couple months ago when the quarterback was cryptic about his health.

"He's a very competitive guy," wide receiver Jermaine Kearse told the Daily News. "The energy that I get from him is that he's super competitive and he wants to win. I respect people with a lot of competitive motives. He comes in here every day. He does what he needs to do to get himself right. He's a pro's pro. He studies. He's a likeable person. He jokes around. He's serious when he needs to be. He just comes in and goes to work. You got to respect that."

Bridgewater was the best quarterback on the field on the first day of the Jets' organized team activities, a promising sign for a guy who had a solid start to his career before a mishap in practice nearly cost him that career. He was fluid in his drop-backs without a trace of a limp. He was smooth on a designed roll-out to his right on one of his nine snaps in 11-on-11 team drills.

If you didn't know any better, you'd think that he was never injured.

If Teddy Bridgewater can prove his knee is healthy then he has a shot to start Week 1 for Jets. (Seth Wenig/AP)

"He and I are the same," wide receiver Quincy Enunwa, who missed all of last season with a neck injury, told The News. "We really want to push ourselves to get out there and do our thing. I don't think he really cares about what's in front of him. Obviously, he wants to help in any way that he can, but he's a football player. He's a guy that was once a starter."

It was encouraging, but only the beginning of the process.

Bridgewater, sporting a black sleeve over his surgically repaired left knee, still has to clear important hurdles. The true test will be how he responds to getting hit in preseason games. How his knee responds to contact will be the final test that he'll have to pass to show his new team that he should be the Week 1 starter over Josh McCown and Sam Darnold.

Make no mistake: My understanding is that Todd Bowles won't hesitate to start Bridgewater over McCown in the season opener if the former Vikings starter looks great in the preseason and Darnold clearly isn't ready.

Truth be told, the Jets want Darnold to show that he's capable of handling the load this summer so that he can be under center in Week 1, but they won't force the issue. McCown is the safety-net Week 1 starter if Bridgewater and Darnold underperform in the preseason, according to sources.

Teddy Bridgewater gets to work along side rookie Sam Darnold during Jets OTAs. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

Bridgewater, who is 17-12 as a starter with playoff experience, has already impressed — and helped — his new teammates.

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"He's a smart football player," Kearse said. "What I've really appreciated is our conversations. Our football talk has really been beneficial for me in improving my game. Just the dialogue that we have…whether we're talking about how I'm going to run a certain route and how he would expect certain things. Just that dialogue has been very beneficial for both of us. Obviously, he's got to put the ball where it's supposed to be and I got to be where I'm supposed to be when I'm supposed to be. Having those conversations have been huge so when we go on the field we know what to expect from each other."

The Jets are down to three quarterbacks after Christian Hackenberg was traded to the Raiders Tuesday for a conditional seventh-round pick. My understanding is that general manager Mike Maccagnan planned to maximize his options and maintain flexibility by bringing all four quarterbacks to training camp. He wanted to have the option to trade Bridgewater (or perhaps even McCown) to a quarterback-desperate team hit by an injury/poor play at the position later this summer. If Darnold dazzled in training camp/preseason, for example, the Jets could have conceivably dealt one of their veterans for draft compensation and kept Hackenberg as the No. 3 quarterback.

However, Maccagnan pulled the trigger on trading Hackenberg this week after some gentle nudging from others in the organization fully aware that the former second-rounder had no real chance to be a part of the Jets equation.

The feeling on One Jets Drive was that Maccagnan had been reluctant to concede defeat on Hackenberg because A) he believed that the kid could be productive with more time to develop B) there would have been public backlash attached to getting rid of a second-rounder who didn't take a snap in two seasons and C) any future success by Hackenberg with another team would reflect poorly on the organization (specifically him).

Back page of New York Daily News for March 14, 2018 (New York Daily News)

Regardless, Bridgewater, who will be a free agent in 2019, has a real opportunity to show the rest of the league that he can regain what was lost nearly two years ago. He's embraced Jeremy Bates' scheme rooted in principles of the West Coast offense.

"I'm excited about being in this system," said Bridgewater, who has a 64.7 career completion rate. "When you think about the playmakers who are in this system… the style of offense (and) Jeremy's play-calling, you have no choice but to be excited."

Bridgewater might not be waving pom-poms, but his new teammates have gravitated to a player with quiet confidence and natural leadership skills.

"He's a cool cat," McCown said. "Having a guy who's played as many games as Teddy has and had the success, it's fun to have him in the room listening to his ideas…. His ability to talk ball has been awesome. I'm really excited about Teddy. More importantly, what Teddy brings to our locker room as a leader is great because he's been the guy before. So, he understands what it takes…. Any time you can add another leader like that to your team that adds value to your group. We certainly got that from Teddy."

Bridgewater is far from out of the woods, but it was tantalizing to get a glimpse of his gifts again. He might just wind up being the Week 1 starter. Stay tuned.